The combination of cellular technology and modern smart phones (collectively, “user equipment,” or UEs), among other things, has created an explosion in the volume of data that is provided wirelessly to users. Various applications including, for example, Facebook®, You Tube®, voice calling, and texting all require digital bandwidth. This data can be provided over various cellular networks (e.g., 2G, 3G, 4G, and 4G LTE), which each utilize various radio frequencies.
Because each frequency can provide a finite number of channels and can carry a finite amount of data, UEs tend to operate in one or more frequency ranges based on, among other things, the UE category, the type of connection made (e.g., 2G, 3G, 4G, and 4G LTE), the type of cell tower, and the frequencies that have available bandwidth. “Traditional” cellular connections, for example, are generally made in the 824-896 MHz range, while more modern long-term evolution (LTE) connections (in North America) generally operate on a wide variety of frequencies (e.g., 700, 750, 800, 850, 1900, 1700/2100, 2300, 2500, and 2600 MHz). UEs also generally upload and download data on different frequencies.
As a result, cell towers also generally broadcast and receive on a number of different frequencies. Cell towers may provide frequencies for legacy technologies (e.g., 2G and 3G) as well as more modern technologies such as LTE. If a cell tower with an appropriate frequency range is not available for a particular UE, however, it can be difficult or impossible for the UE to operate.